Clare’s Tony Kelly warns of dual demands on college stars

Clare captain Tony Kelly is glad he’s not facing into Fitzgibbon Cup action this weekend, with the National League looming.

Kelly starred with the University of Limerick while still a student, but he pointed out that players trying to make county panels “could do more harm than good” with the amount of training involved in Fitzgibbon and county teams.

“I’m done, so there’s a bit of downtime to train hard with the county while that’s on,” said Kelly.

“But we have lads now facing into the Fitzgibbon next Sunday, again in midweek, and then a league game the next weekend. It’s pretty daunting for them, especially if you’re new onto a county panel.

“It’s very hard to establish yourself on a county panel if you’re going to be with the college twice and rejoining the league panel that weekend.

You could do yourself more harm than good so it’s about trying to find a balance, but our management team has been adept at doing that the last couple of years. It’s definitely something that needs to be looked at because we have players — as do other counties — who are looking at playing two or three games in a very tight window.

Kelly was speaking

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“The pace has come up and up — in Waterford last weekend, the pace for a game at this time of year was serious. Even last Sunday the pace was at the pace of a league game two or three years ago, the physicality and conditioning of players has gone through the roof.

That’s why this competition is important, it means you’re not going into the first games in the league flat and dead and not knowing where you are after the first 20 minutes. That’s what we’ve tried to use these three games, to get the maximum out of them.

“In fairness, the weather has been pretty good and the fields are in good nick, but the play is slower than it is during the summer.

“That’s what we’ll be facing into come the league, four or five games in similar conditions.

“We’re well used to it at this time of the year but in fairness the pitch (Gaelic Grounds) was in good order on Sunday, and Thurles would be the same.”

That reference to Thurles relates to Clare’s opening NHL game against Tipperary — their opponents last Sunday. Kelly wasn’t getting carried away by the four goals his side scored last weekend, though.

“No, we’ve had three good games and found talent, but we won’t be paying much attention to scoreboards or anything like that. We know the opposition we’ll be facing in the league — Tipp will be completely different in two weeks’ time.”

The league is another opportunity for Clare’s newcomers to make an impression, he added.

“I suppose it’s getting yourself ready for the championship. We know from the league last year we got a run of it, and with the new structures there’s not much of a down-time between the end of the league and the first game in the championship. It’s about getting yourself to that peak condition for the championship and knowing you can go to another gear.

“We know the standard is high in the Munster League, but the National League is another notch up and the championship is another couple of notches up again.

“It’s about trying to find new lads and increasing competition within the panel and I think we’ve done that — Colin Guilfoyle, Aidan McCarthy, Diarmuid Ryan, they were all good again on Sunday. If they can push on again in the league they’ll make it harder for the so-called established players to get back on the team.”

How good is a win like last Sunday’s for confidence?

“Every win you get is a confidence booster but we won’t read too much into it irrespective of the result. Some of the play is where you get confidence in those kinds of matches, there were good patches of play.

“There were patches where we need to improve as well, but it’s the good patches of play you look back on and take confidence from.”